In the Clearing Stood a Boxer and a Kerry By His Name

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) held a news conference this morning on the East Front Lawn of the Capitol to announce their cap-and-trade-and-tax climate control bill. (Media advisory) From Sen. Kerry’s news release, “Kerry, Boxer Introduce ‘Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act’“:

This is a security bill that puts Americans back in charge of our energy future and makes it clear that we will combat global climate change with American ingenuity. It is our country’s defense against the harms of pollution and the security risks of global climate change,” said Kerry. “Our health, our security, our economy, our environment, all demand we reinvent the way America uses energy. Our addiction to foreign oil hurts our economy, helps our enemies and risks our security. By taking decisive action, we can and will stop climate change from becoming a ‘threat multiplier’ that makes an already dangerous world staggeringly more so…”

Senator Boxer said, “We know clean energy is the ticket to strong, stable economic growth — it’s right here in front of us, in the ingenuity of our workers and the vision of our entrepreneurs. We must seize this opportunity, or others will move ahead. This is our time. Global warming is our challenge. Economic recovery is our challenge. American leadership is our challenge. Let’s step up right now. Let’s not quit until we have fulfilled our responsibility to our children and our grandchildren.”

You’ll note the attempt to reframe the discussion through by turning carbon dioxide into “pollution.” (Why not water vapor, also a greenhouse gas.) Cap and trade becomes “pollution reduction and investment.”

So here’s a bill to fundamentally reshape the economy of the United States, render U.S. companies less competitive globally, and reward favored constituencies and what do we get? Marketing…

The NAM will have a statement later in the day.

UPDATE (5 p.m.): Here’s the NAM’s statement. We briefly had it up as a blog post, but since it’s also a news release, no point in duplication.